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If you have followed my blog for any length of time you will know that it wasn’t too long ago that I didn’t have much focus. I was floundering, lost, disorganized. I longed to tap into my greater potential, but couldn’t escape the feeling of being an underachiever.

Then in 2014 something clicked and there were two things that made me a better person: paying attention to details and becoming more organized. The simple fact was that of all the successful people I knew, not one of them was disorganized. And every single one of them paid attention to small details.

Till this day I pay attention to small details like doing exactly what I say I’m going to do. Returning phone calls in a timely manner (within 1 hour), answering emails immediately upon receipt, showing up to appointments 10 minutes early and taking detailed notes are a few of my “best practices” that have allowed me more success.

I truly believe that success in anything is found in paying attention to the small details.

I am a hard worker. By this I mean that I develop a plan, analyze my progress, challenge myself daily and put the time in; basically I show up every day to succeed. I know not everyone does this because I watch people’s actions.

Living in the world of sales and marketing affords me the opportunity to watch a lot of business people and compare and contrast. Living in the world of sales also allows me to watch other sales people and compare and contrast what I do against what they do. I have learned that if you aren’t doing it, then one of your competitors is doing it; so get busy!

I see a lot of mediocre habits. I watch people go through the motions every day. I hear people talk as if they want to be the best, but then watch their actions say otherwise.

Hard work.

I’m not so sure people these days want to work hard. I’m not sure people in our age understand what working diligently means. I am convinced that people have tricked themselves into believing they are doing their best when in fact they are operating at 60%.

The vast majority are coasting; flying under the radar. They live in a world below the top 10%, but above the bottom dwelling 10%. Flying under the radar isn’t a compliment. It means you put effort into not being noticed; going undetected. Those living in the world of the 80% do so because they are comfortable there. The expectations are lower when you live in the middle.

The funny thing is those who live in the top 10% never think about it because they are too busy working. And most times those who think they are a top producer are not and make excuses. Those who say “I’m an asset to the company” or “they couldn’t run this place without me” are the ones who have tricked themselves into believing they are a top producer when in fact they are not.

They are living in the realm of “good enough”. I’m not sure what “good enough” is, but it isn’t okay with me.

The real question is where do you stand? Have you tricked yourself into believing you are functioning optimally when in fact you are coasting at about 60% efficiency?

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail…Napoleon Hill.

For those who are not familiar, Napoleon Hill wrote a book called Think and Grow Rich which was first introduced to me by my friend Billy. In that book is a story of a young man named Edwin C. Barnes that wanted to meet Thomas Edison. He jumped a train as a stowaway and showed up on Edison’s porch with nothing, dressed like a hobo. When Edison answered he stated he was there to offer Edison the opportunity to be his business partner. All of Edison’s employees laughed, but not Edison. He gave Barnes a job sweeping floors, a job he proudly performed for 2 years.

Eventually, he asked for an opportunity that none of the salesmen wanted, selling what would become known as the Ediphone. Edwin C. Barnes developed a plan to market the monstrosity and made himself and Edison millionaires. He was successful because he knew what he wanted to accomplish, he determined what he was willing to sacrifice to achieve it, he envisioned success, developed a plan, was undeterred by criticism and failure, he found a way to make others successful, was committed to working hard and maintained a determination to succeed.

For those of you who are struggling to find yourself or finding the success you believe you are capable, I highly recommend you go buy this book and read it, eat it, drink it, live it, own it. It will change your life.

Going through the archives for my blogiversary post reminded me of some of my goals. It reminded me of what I’ve already achieved and what I want to continue achieving.

I have the job. I’m learning the job. I’m moved into a new place. I’m learning the city. Now, as I’ve been saying for the past few months, I really need to refocus my energies on my health. I need to not just write about it but actually do it.

Tonight I’m doing strength training and floor work at home but tomorrow I’m going to the fitness center. I’m committing myself to at least 3 days a week in there, plus workouts at home and working on getting in more steps during the day. There’s a bathroom by the fitness center so I’m going to bring work out clothes and change there because unfortunately once I get into my apartment…

Are we doomed to repeat past decisions? Worse yet, are we doomed to repeat past mistakes?

That friendship which ended with a showdown? That abusive relationship? That bad business decisions? That wasteful month where you ate your way into extra large jeans? All tendencies. All patterns. Ones that may make a comeback.

Is it a character flaw? Is it conditioning? Is it fear? Is it fate?

No matter what it is, it happens without fail. We can learn from our mistakes but avoiding tendencies is a whole different battle. So how do you fight it? How do you make it stop? How do you break the cycle?

When birds fly, they stretch their wings all the way out to use the entire span for lift. They reach and pull to make the most of each stroke so their flight is even, and seemingly effortless. However, nothing that defies gravity is effortless, and in spite of the work it takes, they fly when they want to, and get where they need to be. We don’t have wings, but we have things we need to do and they take effort as well. If we enjoy the task it can seem easy and fun, but no matter what we’re doing we need to make sure it gets done. There is an old saying that anything worth doing is worth doing well. And that’s true. If we’re going to expend any effort, or do anything, we should do it the best way we can.

Have you ever felt like you were made to achieve something great in your life? That you weren’t satisfied with just settling, that life had something big in store for you? The feeling that you could achieve something great, if you put your heart into something? It’s called the spark, and it burns inside of us.

Can you feel the spark burning inside of you?

I have always had a difficult time accepting mediocrity, I always believed that my life would not feel “accomplished” if I became another regular Joe Blow. Whenever I thought about becoming a police officer, I wanted to be the Chief of Police. If I wanted to become a filmmaker, I wanted to be world renowned. I just couldn’t live with the idea of just being a regular guy, working a regular job. I felt like I needed to achieve something great in my…

Everyone has the dream of becoming rich and successful. If you ask anyone on the streets if they wish they had a million dollars in their bank account, I would submit that 100% of the answers would be a big fat “YES!” Okay, so it’s obvious that people want to accumulate riches. But what are the actual attributes needed to actually make this happen?

I grew up in a very working class household. My parents did their best to support my brothers, sister, and I. I love them for that. However, there were very deep issues financially. As I grew older, I came to the realization of why this was so. It wasn’t because my parents didn’t work hard – my parents were very VERY hard workers. What it came down to was the limitations of a preset belief system. Unless you can break pre-existing patterns, it’s very difficult to…